“Local residents, particularly women with children, would much prefer to use separate facilities as apart from anything else, it is safer.

“If the male/female symbols, rather than any text, are to be used on the toilet then this avoids any confusion so why is the council muddying the waters by insisting they are called gender neutral, which will mean nothing to most people?”

The £140,000 refurbishment of the lavatories on Rottingdean seafront in Brighton is due to begin this week and is being funded jointly by Rottingdean Parish Council and the city council.

Mrs Hyde said she understood the city council planned to gradually phase out all male and female lavatories in order to cater for the minority group.

The move follows the establishment of a working group to examine issues faced by transgender residents in the city.

Last year, the Trans Equality Scrutiny Panel recommended that titles such as Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms be banned so as not to offend the community and force them to “choose between genders”.

Green Party deputy leader Phelim MacCafferty backed the proposal saying: “Trans people aren't necessarily male or female and sometimes they don't want to be defined by their gender.”

The 37 recommendations made by the panel also included “removing the need to identify as male or female” when arriving at a doctor’s surgery, more training for council staff, police and health workers and appointing a “Trans champion” within the council.

A city council spokeswoman decline to comment on the decision to promote the term gender neutral.

She said: “When producing signs for public toilets in the city we use standard images rather than words.

“This is particularly beneficial to the many tourists from overseas visiting our city.”

The lesbian, gay and transgender population in Brighton is estimated to be around 40,000.

In a 2006 a survey of the community, around five percent of respondents identified themselves as transgender.